After a long day of investigating with Michio, I was heading back to my room. Unsurprisingly, we hadn't found much. The mastermind was pretty good at hiding things, especially if they themselves were hiding among us.

Before I could even fully get upstairs, I saw Satchiko heading down the stairs towards me.

"Hey Kazuki!" She greeted with a smile, then looked around before approaching me. "Have you seen Cinder? I let her out this morning and she hasn't come back yet. Oh, right!" She changed the topic before I could even respond, and her expression suddenly changed to something more serious. "Could you come with me to the warehouse? I think I found something."

I slowly nodded, curious to know what she meant. "Yeah, of course...." Did she have information about the mastermind?

I headed back down the stairs, this time with Satchiko by my side. I so desperately wanted to ask her what she found, but I knew that she'd never tell me while the security cameras still had us in view.

All of a sudden, Satchiko stopped. She said nothing, just stopped walking, staring ahead with a slight nervousness in her eyes.

"Satchiko, is something wrong?" I asked, stopping as well.

The lucky student started to shake. "B-blood...."

I followed her gaze, and on the wall in front of us was what appeared to be the smear of a handprint, clearly in the deep colour of drying blood. I immediately understood Satchiko's sudden fear. This can't be good.

Before it could fully sink in, we heard a scream coming from the restaurant. Satchiko and I hurried towards the area, bursting through the door to see Mai and Willow clinging to each other.

Looking straight forward, placed in clear sight, was a scene I wished I had never laid my eyes on.

"Cinder!" Satchiko yelled when she saw it.

On the wall, with a nail through the centre of the throat holding it in place, was the corpse of a familiar grey cat. Her stomach was split open, blood still dripping down. Next to it, in large smeared letters was a simple two word message. I assumed it was written in the cat's blood, and just looking at it sent chills down my spine.

DON'T SPEAK.

Satchiko fell to her knees, breathing heavily as tears fell from her watery eyes. "I-I don't... I don't wanna die... I don't wanna die!"